The start of a new welding program at Beal College in Bangor and the announcement of a new precision machine shop in York County’s town of Limington are some specific, local examples of the state’s continued need for workers who have the skills to fix and build products.
But it’s important to understand the manufacturing industry in context. Its needs are changing. Manufacturing businesses now require a greater number of workers with technical skills, and they can’t find them.
Getting those workers will require a number of approaches, including connecting businesses with workforce training options, ensuring that colleges have access to the equipment they need to train students and recruiting trained workers from out of state.
Part of the answer will also be to create awareness about the manufacturing situation. Though the industry has shrunk dramatically, segments of the industry — such as those relating to fabricated metal products and chemicals production for biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields — are expected to grow.
Here’s what has happened: Manufacturing positions accounted for 43 percent of nonfarm-related jobs 60 years ago, according to a new Maine Department of Labor report. In 2011 they accounted for only 8.5 percent.
Service-related jobs, meanwhile, nearly quadrupled in that same time period and are expected to create nearly 80 percent of all new jobs between 2008 and 2018, according to the Maine Department of Labor.
Looking ahead, the number of jobs needed to manufacture durable goods — such as fabricated metal products, electrical equipment and furniture — are expected to decrease 9.6 percent, to about 53,000 in 2018. Jobs needed to manufacture nondurable goods — such as apparel, leather and paper — are expected to decrease 11.4 percent, to about 24,300 in 2018.
Though manufacturing has and will shed jobs, production has remained steady due to technological advancements. Output increased 56 percent per worker between 2000 and 2011, even though positions were cut.
But while employers have not needed as many workers, they have seen an increased need for more educated workers. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of manufacturing employees with a high school education or less dropped from 66 to 51 percent of total employment. And workers with at least some college education increased from 34 to 49 percent.
Compounding the increased need for skilled workers is the impending loss of many experienced employees. Workers age 55 and older comprised 23 percent of the labor force for 2011, an increase from 13 percent in 2001. Being able to replace retiring workers is critical.
There are already more open manufacturing positions than workers with whom to fill them. The labor department reported that in June 2012 there were 615 job postings for production occupations on Wanted Analytics. Surveys of manufacturers have also found that many openings, particularly for machinists and precision manufacturing jobs, go unfilled.
Adjusting to the changing needs of manufacturers involves many people. Businesses should know about federal assistance through the Workforce Investment Act and state help through the Competitive Skills Scholarship Program. They can also connect with local workforce boards to find skilled workers in their area.
Community colleges can work with companies in specific fields, whether it’s logging or construction, to share often-expensive equipment needed for teaching future workers. And the state can change how it tries to attract out-of-state workers — to target people who have the skills needed to fill specific openings in Maine.
There are still jobs in the manufacturing industry — they’re just different than those held by the previous generation. Maine must adapt to ensure businesses have access to the skilled workers they need in order to remain competitive.
Take note those heading off to college. There is nothing wrong with going to a trade school to learn a skilled trade. You’d make more money than most kids who get a traditional BA or BS, not to mention smaller loans and more job opportunities.
Good smart advice. I just wonder how many of the various School Counselor’s would make this option open to their student’s ?
Very, very few. When my kids were in high school a few years ago, all the counselors could say was college, college, college. Mention wanting to work in a “dirty hands” job and it’s “No, no, you need college”. Therein lies the rub, and it’s rubbing the wrong way. My opinion.
The manufacturing sector is for all practical purposes stone cold dead with no foreseeable comeback, particularly in a state as business-unfriendly as Maine. The machinist jobs that offer $30/hr are far & few between, $20/hr is the norm & that’s far from a living wage. Kids, be smart, go into the public sector where you’ll enjoy easy money, exorbitant benefits, a retirement plan & no pressure to produce a tangible result. Put your 20 easy years in, retire & double-dip.
Agreed. The machine shops have been singing this sad song for nearly 30 years. Not mentioned in any of these puff pieces are a few discouraging realities in this trade.
First, you may not spend as much for the education, but you’ll pay dearly for the required tools. Expect to spend many thousands to be correctly equipped.
Second, those tools will come in handy to pawn when the inevitable layoffs come. The shop floor is the first area cut.
Lastly, the shortage is a lie. Many of these places say they are looking for a CNC lathe operator, but the job requirement is for a CNC lathe operator who has experience turning hardened A-10 on a Hitachi. The job requirements are absurd, and then they get to claim “We can’t get any help!”
Kids, don’t buy into it. The only reason they continue this song-and-dance is to get more fresh recruits flooding the market, keeping wages down and making existing employees nervous about job security. Let a REAL shortage develop, and they just might decide to treat the help like human beings!
Or move to a state that supports training and apprenticeship programs. That’s where the good jobs are and the competition between shops leads to top wages for top skills.
The point of this article, which I believe is spot on, is that manufacturing today demands more than the old school tech training programs for machinists. I have no idea what Beal is doing but hopefully it is a comprehensive education with arts and sciences in addition to hands-on shop work. I get the notion that many kids aren’t cut out for traditional college studies but those kids aren’t going to cut it in manufacturing anymore. They can work service industry jobs, and there is no shame in that, but 21st century manufacturing requires a well-rounded, educated workforce. Attracting kids to that lifestyle around here is going to be a big challenge – long hours, crappy pay, and not very many jobs right now but all of that could change quickly so this is good news
And why do you think someone in the Machinist trade would need Arts and Sciences? I have worked with many people in the machine trades who wern’t cut out for college. They were some of the best in their trade.
Today machines are robots and you need to be able to communicate with that robot, not to mention you need to be able to communicate with the “human” resources people at your plant who act like robots. It’s a different world, no offense intended. rallydog makes some good points in his post, the worker is really also a robot and considered expendable by management but those communication skills can separate employable kids with good machining skills from kids who have good machining skills but are not employable in today’s manufacturing world. Someday the machine operator will be replaced by someone operating the robot that operates the machine, that’s progress and it’s inevitable
Haven’t spent much time in a machine shop, have you.
I just left one a few hours ago and will be back in one tomorrow
They need to be able to read and write, they need to know computers, how to read and understand complicated material. They need to be able to carry on an intelligent conversation.
They learn those things in high school. i don’t see a need for college level Arts and Sciences. Time wasted learning useless information could be used to improve skills. Machinist entails much more than CNC. CNC machines falls under machine operator.
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“The issue isn’t just jobs. Even slaves had jobs. The issue is wages.” — Jim Hightower
The story is, businesses cannot find skilled workers. I suppose it is hard to find humans to work at unfulfilling jobs, no future, no benefits, treated badly by bean counter managers, did I mention low pay. That is the future offer to our youth in the USA. When employees are treated as an asset, valuable, respectfully, and compensated with a fair proportion to the productivity, watch them line up at the hiring door. The challenge for today’s businesses is how do they attract quality employees to sweatshop conditions.I witnessed temporary employees hired where I used to work. They did the same job I did at half the pay and no benefits or promise of a permanent position. These temp people were all skilled and had long standing experience at other companies. Their problem is the rug was pulled out from under them and were discarded by the “Machiavellian” policies practiced today. It was not long before these temp people saw behind the wizards curtain and could see there was no future there. The majority I talked to expressed the same sentiment, 1 how could you have worked here so long being treated as a sub human, 2 I am out of here as soon as anything come along. It seems like businesses, the idea of “business” has been elevated to the status of deity. When I hear business mentioned it is with the connotation of superiority. We cannot find people who measure up to our supreme standards. You know the old saying, “you have to spend money to make money”. It is about time for businesses to realize they are in a partnership with their staff, and equal partnership, after all they make the stuff you sell.
Both well said and with more than a truck load of truth. The constant degrading of the shop talent by both manager’s and the HR Dept’s, who usually don’t know one end of a wrench from another, is almost universally recognized as the main reason so many shop’s and organizations go thru what’s kown as ‘The Leaky Bucket Syndrome’ when it comes to hiring, and then having to re-hire, to keep a slot filled. Both talent and the plain decency of treating the people that make up an organization are what keep any growing company moving forward. When the people who make up a Company or Organization are treated with disrespect and complete disregard for what it took them to achieve the skill in whatever fireld they are in, it’s inevitable that the Company or Organization is going to crash, economic condition’s regardless.
There have been so many studies that have shown that HR policies, and shop floor relation’s, are THE leading cause of manpower turnover that it’s not funny. That we, as a Country, continue to trash the very resource we need, that being the talent that actually fuels the economy, just shows that the priority’s of business need to change if the Country is to grow out of the mess we are in. The more that the resource’s are wasted, the worse this is gonna get, no matter who’s in office.